Are you experiencing power struggles with your children and losing? In the long run your children are the big losers. Fear of discipline is one of the most common parenting problems I see today. I meet parents who are not comfortable in their parenting role or have no confidence in their parenting skills or find it very difficult to discipline their children. Some parents had been treated harshly, or actually abused, by their parents. Determined not to treat their children the same way, they overreact and never correct their children at all.

Some simply lack parenting skills. These are usually first-time parents who didn't do much baby-sitting and are not sure which end of a child is up. They manage pretty well until the baby gets to be a toddler. Then children reach a developmental stage when oppositional behavior is not only normal but necessary to their growing-up.
The solution to becoming an "in-charge" parent is to look within and find out where you're at. If you need knowledge, take a parenting class or hit the library. If you lack parenting self-esteem or confidence, get counselling. You have already made an important first step. You know you have a problem and are asking what you can do about it.